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A GROUP dedicated to securing a new national flag has used Australia Day eve to launch a "sporting flag".

Ausflag describes itself as an "apolitical, non-profit organisation seeking to secure the popular support of the Australian people for the adoption of a truly Australian flag".

The group's chairman, Robert Webster, said the Olympic Games in London had illustrated "what a confusing and embarrassing flag the Australian flag really is".

"Australia entered the Olympic stadium with a defaced British ensign, along with a line up of other competitors who also had Union Jacks dominating their flags," Mr Webster said.

"But all those competitors, with the exception of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tuvalu (population 8000) are colonies of Great Britain, not independent countries.

"With the recent announcement that Fiji will change its flag, soon there will be only three nations out of 54 in the Commonwealth whose flags are still dominated by the Union Jack."

Mr Webster said one event at the games was particularly cringe worthy.

"One of the most embarrassing moments was the flag raising ceremony at the ... following the women's pair rowing event ... all to the dulcet tones of God Save the Queen," he said.

"UK first. Australia second. NZ third. It looked like Mother England teaching her kids how to fly. Or as one person summed it up in a letter to the editor in the Sydney Morning Herald: 'Britain, Little Britain and Littler Britain. Wake up Australia and get some pride'."

Mr Webster said the sporting flag, which was developed from a concept devised by Dr Anthony Gooley, ticked all the boxes for an Australian sporting flag - history, simplicity, identity, recognition and our national colours.

He said Ausflag planned to promote the flag at international sporting events wherever possible.

But he denied the campaign to have the Union Jack removed from Australia's flag was "anti-British".

"It's passionately pro-Australian. It's no more anti-British than when we changed our national anthem from God Save the Queen to Advance Australia Fair," he said.